2 million ordered to leave as Irene takes aim

2 million ordered to leave as Irene takes aim

Heavy rains and wind from Hurricane Irene whip the sand on the beach at Pawleys Island, S.C., Friday, Aug. 26, 2011. Hurricane Irene began lashing the East Coast with rain Friday ahead of a weekend of violent weather that was almost certain to heap punishment on a vast stretch of shoreline from the Carolinas to Massachusetts.

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP) -- Whipping up trouble before ever reaching land, Hurricane Irene zeroed in Friday for a catastrophic run up the Eastern Seaboard. More than 2 million people were told to move to safer places, and New York City ordered its entire network of subways shut down for the first time because of a natural disaster.

As the storm's outermost bands of wind and rain began to lash the Outer Banks of North Carolina, authorities in points farther north begged people to get out of harm's way. The hurricane lost some strength but still packed winds of almost 100 mph, and officials in the Northeast, not used to tropical weather, feared it could wreak devastation.

"Don't wait. Don't delay," said President Barack Obama, who decided to cut short his summer vacation by a day and return to Washington. "I cannot stress this highly enough: If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now."

Hurricane warnings were issued from North Carolina to New York, and watches were posted farther north, on the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard off Massachusetts. Evacuation orders covered at least 2.3 million people, including 1 million in New Jersey, 315,000 in Maryland, 300,000 in North Carolina, 200,000 in Virginia and 100,000 in Delaware.

"This is probably the largest number of people that have been threatened by a single hurricane in the United States," said Jay Baker, a geography professor at Florida State University.

New York City ordered more than 300,000 people who live in flood-prone areas to leave, including Battery Park City at the southern tip of Manhattan, Coney Island and the beachfront Rockaways. But it was not clear how many would do it, how they would get out or where they would go. Most New Yorkers don't have a car.

On top of that, the city said it would shut down the subways and buses at noon Saturday, only a few hours after the first rain is expected to fall. The transit system carries about 5 million people on an average weekday, fewer on weekends. It has been shut down several times before, including during a transit workers' strike in 2005 and after the Sept. 11 attacks a decade ago, but never for weather.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was little authorities could do to force people to leave.

"We do not have the manpower to go door-to-door and drag people out of their homes," he said. "Nobody's going to get fined. Nobody's going to go to jail. But if you don't follow this, people may die."

Shelters were opening Friday afternoon, and the city was placed under its first hurricane warning since 1985.

Transit systems in New Jersey and Philadelphia also announced plans to shut down, and Washington declared a state of emergency. Boisterous New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie demanded people "get the hell off the beach" in Asbury Park and said: "You're done. Do not waste any more time working on your tan."

Hundreds of thousands of airline passengers were grounded for the weekend. JetBlue Airways said it was scrubbing about 880 flights between Saturday and Monday, most to and from hub airports in New York and Boston. Other airlines said they were waiting to be more certain about Irene's path before announcing more cancellations.

Thousands of people were already without power. In Charleston, S.C., several people had to be rescued after a tree fell on their car.

Defying the orders, hardy holdouts in North Carolina put plywood on windows, gathered last-minute supplies and tied down boats. More than half the people who live on two remote islands, Hatteras and Ocracoke, had ignored orders to leave, and as time to change their minds ran short, officials ordered dozens of body bags. The last ferry from Ocracoke was set to leave at 4 p.m. Friday.

"I anticipate we're going to have people floating on the streets, and I don't want to leave them lying there," said Richard Marlin, fire chief for one of the seven villages on Hatteras. "The Coast Guard will either be pulling people off their roofs like in Katrina or we'll be scraping them out of their yards."

Officially, Irene was expected to make landfall Saturday near Morehead City, on the southern end of the Outer Banks, the barrier island chain. But long before the eye crossed the coastline, the blustery winds and intermittent rains were already raking the coast.

Some took to shelters for protection.

Susan Kinchen, her daughter and 5-month-old granddaughter came to West Carteret High School with about 50 others. She said they didn't feel safe in their trailer, and the Louisiana native was reminded of how her old trailer lost its roof to Hurricane Katrina.

"We live in a trailer with her," said Kinchen, referring to the infant. "I'm not taking any chances."

National Hurricane Center meteorologist David Zelinsky said earlier Friday that he expected the storm to arrive as a Category 2 or 3 hurricane. Later in the day, other forecasts showed it would strike most of the coast as a Category 1. The scale runs from 1, barely stronger than a tropical storm, to a monstrous 5. On Friday afternoon, Irene was a Category 2.

Regardless of how fierce the storm is when it makes landfall, the coast of North Carolina was expected to get winds of more than 100 mph and waves perhaps as high as 11 feet, Zelinsky said.

"This is a really large hurricane and it is dangerous," he said. "Whether it is a Category 2 or 3 at landfall, the effects are still going to be strong. I would encourage people to take it seriously."

Officer Edward Mann was driving down the narrow streets of Nags Head looking for cars in driveways, a telltale sign of people planning to ride out the storm against all advice.

Bucky Domanski, 71, was working in his garage when Mann walked in. He told the officer he planned to stay. Mann handed Domanski a piece of paper with details about the county's evacuation order. It warned that hurricane force winds would flood the roads and there might not be power or water until well after the storm.

"You understand we can't help you during the storm," Mann said.

"I understand," Domanski replied.

After the Outer Banks, the next target for Irene was the Hampton Roads region of southeast Virginia, a jagged network of inlets and rivers that floods easily. Emergency officials have said the region is more threatened by storm surge, the high waves that accompany a storm, than wind. Gas stations there were low on fuel Friday, and grocery stores scrambled to keep water and bread on the shelves.

In Delaware, Gov. Jack Markell ordered an evacuation of coastal areas.

"We could be open tonight for business, but there's a very fine line between doing the right thing and putting our staff at risk," said Alex Heidenberger, owner of Mango Mike's restaurant in Bethany Beach, who expects to lose $40,000 to $50,000 in business. "It's not so much we're worried about the storm coming tonight, but we want to give them a chance to get out of town and get their affairs in order."

Officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington said they were speeding the transfer of their last remaining patients to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The transfer had been planned for Sunday.

In Baltimore's Fells Point neighborhood, one of the city's oldest waterfront neighborhoods, people filled sandbags and placed them at the entrances to buildings. A few miles away at the Port of Baltimore, vehicles and cranes continued to unload huge cargo ships that were rushing to offload and get away from the storm.

In New York, the Mets postponed games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday with the visiting Atlanta Braves, and the Jets and Giants moved their preseason NFL game up to 2 p.m. Saturday from 7 p.m.

And in Atlantic City, N.J., all 11 casinos announced plans to shut down Friday, only the third time that has happened in the 33-year history of legalized gambling in that state.

"I like gambling, but you don't play with this," Pearson Callender said as he waited for a Greyhound bus out of town. "People are saying this is an act of God. I just need to get home to be with my family."

Fight 'the rats,' Gadhafi urges as rebels push on

Fight 'the rats,' Gadhafi urges as rebels push on

Rebel fighters check the ID of captured loyalist soldier during street fighting in the Abu Salim district in Tripoli, LIbya, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- The streets where rebel fighters bombarded snipers loyal to Moammar Gadhafi were strewn with bullet-ridden corpses from both sides Thursday. Streams of blood ran down the gutters and turned sewers red.

By sundown the rebels appeared to have won the battle for the Abu Salim neighborhood, next to Gadhafi's captured Tripoli compound, but the fallen dictator continued to elude them. Speaking from an unknown location, he exhorted his supporters to fight on.

"Don't leave Tripoli for the rats. Fight them, and kill them," Gadhafi said in a new audio message broadcast on Al-Ouroba TV, a Syria-based satellite station.

Outside his Bab al-Aziziya compound, which rebels captured Tuesday, there was another grim scene - one that suggested mass, execution-style killings of civilians.

About two dozen bodies - some with their hands bound by plastic ties and with bullet wounds to the head - lay scattered on grassy lots in an area where Gadhafi sympathizers had camped out for months.

The identities of the dead were unclear, but they were in all likelihood activists who had set up an impromptu tent city in solidarity with Gadhafi in defiance of the NATO bombing campaign.

Five or six bodies were in a tent erected on a roundabout that had served as a field clinic. One of the dead still had an IV in his arm, and another body was completely charred, its legs missing. The body of a doctor, in his green hospital gown, was found dumped in the canal.

It was unclear who was responsible for the killings.

Rebels have seized most of Tripoli since sweeping into the capital on Sunday, and on Thursday they announced that their leadership was moving into the capital. The rebel National Transitional Council has been based in the eastern city of Benghazi, which fell to rebel forces early in the conflict.

"In the name of the martyrs ... I proclaim the beginning ... of the work of the executive office in a free Tripoli as of this moment," Ali Tarhouni, the council's finance minister, told reporters in Tripoli.

"I have a final message for everyone who is still carrying arms against the revolution," he said, "to let go of their arms and go back to their homes, and we promise not to take revenge against them."

The rebels know they cannot declare a full victory in the 6-month-old civil war as long as Gadhafi has not been captured or killed. There was no sign of the leader or his sons, despite rumors that swirled around the battlefield that they may be hiding inside some of the besieged buildings in Abu Salim.

The neighborhood, where battles have raged for days, is thought to be the last major stronghold of regime brigades in Tripoli, though there has also been ongoing fighting around the airport. Many of the pro-Gadhafi forces in Abu Salim are believed to have fled his Bab al-Aziziya compound after rebels captured it Tuesday, and the neighborhood is among the few places in Tripoli where pro-Gadhafi graffiti has not been painted over.

Rebel fighters moved methodically through the neighborhood - some on foot, wearing shorts and carrying machine guns, and others in long lines of pickup trucks with weapons mounted on the back. They fired anti-aircraft guns and rockets, trying to clear buildings of Gadhafi defenders.

Some of the bodies in the streets were on fire. The rebels covered their own with blankets and left the bullet-riddled bodies of their foes exposed.

The air was clogged with deafening explosions from mortars, the whistle of sniper fire and smoke from burning buildings and ammunition.

Civilians were in some of the buildings and caught up in the crossfire.

A mother ran out of one the buildings under siege, screaming: "My son needs first aid." Behind her, the building's glass windows were shattered and black smoked poured out of a burning apartment.

Amid the din, the call to prayer wafted out from neighborhood mosques.

The rebels, many from the western, rebel-held city of Misrata, were spurred on by rumors that one of Gadhafi's sons might be hiding in the buildings.

"Today is a crucial moment. This huge resistance suggests there is a big person there," said Youssef Aradat, a rebel fighter with a beard and aviator sunglasses. "It is a matter of hours. Now we can kill him. We will go room by room, flat by flat, street by street."

Gadhafi has repeatedly vowed to fight until "victory or martyrdom."

"Take over the rooftops, the mosques, the side streets; there will be no safe place for the enemies," he said in the audio message. He warned that the rebels will try to go into his supporters' homes and rape women. "They will enter your houses and deprive you of your honor."

In Washington, the Pentagon pushed back on assertions that either NATO or the U.S. military is actively engaged in a manhunt for Gadhafi, underscoring ongoing sensitivities over the strict parameters of the U.N. mission there.

Marine Col. David Lapan said the U.S. is conducting aerial surveillance of Libya in support of NATO's military mission to protect civilians from attack by government forces. But he said this does not amount to targeting Gadhafi, and that it is not NATO's mission to target or hunt down individuals.

That statement conflicted with comments by British Defense Secretary Liam Fox, who said Thursday that NATO intelligence and reconnaissance assets are being used to try to hunt down Gadhafi.

Gadhafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, in a call to AP's Cairo office, said Gadhafi was still in Libya and his morale was high. Ibrahim refused to say where Gadhafi was hiding, but said he "is indeed leading the battle for our freedom and independence."

Ibrahim, whose voice was clearly recognizable, said he was also in hiding in Libya and constantly on the move.

"All of the leader's family are fine," Ibrahim said, adding that top military and political aides remained with Gadhafi.

Ibrahim claimed Gadhafi's forces controlled a "good portion" of the capital - a claim that contradicts what reporters can see - and other cities and towns.

In Abu Salim, the hours-long barrage ended at sunset. Rebel fighters went door to door through largely deserted apartment buildings, occasionally dragging out suspected regime loyalists.

Some were dark-skinned men wearing cut-off camouflage and T-shirts. Their hands were tied behind their backs before they were driven away. The rebels have long claimed Gadhafi had been hiring mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa to bolster his army.

Some rebels looted the buildings, taking computers from a devastated fire station and printers from a nearby market area.

Rebels say one of their key targets now is Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Tripoli, but capturing that city would not be easy because Gadhafi's fellow tribesmen were expected to put up a fierce fight.

Opposition leaders have said they were trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender of the city. The rebels said the supply lines to Sirte would be too long and they are short of funds and supplies.

The rebels have appealed to foreign governments for help freeing up funds Gadhafi's regime has amassed around the world. The U.S. and South Africa reached a deal Thursday that will release $1.5 billion in frozen Libyan assets in American banks, and Italy was preparing to release $505 million in frozen assets in Italian banks in what Premier Silvio Berlusconi called a first payment.

Four Italian journalists taken at gunpoint in Tripoli were freed Thursday in a raid on the house where they were being held, an official said.

Beyond the capital, rebels have seized several parts of Sebha, a Gadhafi stronghold deep in the south, according to rebel official Adel al-Zintani, who is in daily telephone contact with rebel commanders in the desert city.

Fawzi Abu Ketf, the council's deputy defense minister, said fighting was raging outside Bin Jawad, 400 miles (650 kilometers) east of Tripoli, but he had no details.

Gadhafi loyalists ambushed rebels advancing toward Bin Jawad on Wednesday, killing at least 20 of them. The ambush showed that pro-regime forces retain the ability to strike back even as the rebels tighten their control over the nation's capital.

Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the National Transitional Council, called on people living in loyalist-held towns to join the fight against Gadhafi's soldiers.

"I am appealing to the areas not yet liberated to join the revolution," he told reporters in Benghazi. "There is no excuse for them not to join."

Hurricane Irene tightens aim on East Coast

Hurricane Irene tightens aim on East Coast

In an image provided by NOAA and made by the GOES East satellite Hurricane Irene is shown as it move over the Bahama Thursday Aug. 25, 2011. Irene could hit North Carolina's Outer Banks on Saturday afternoon with winds around 115 mph (185 kph) and it's predicted to go up the East Coast, dumping rain from Virginia to New York City.

BUXTON, N.C. (AP) -- A monstrous Hurricane Irene tightened its aim on the Eastern Seaboard on Thursday, threatening 65 million people along a shore-hugging path from North Carolina to New England. One of the nation's top experts called it his "nightmare" scenario.

The Category 3 storm with winds of 115 mph - the threshold for a major hurricane - would be the strongest to strike the East Coast in seven years, and people were already getting out of the way.

Tens of thousands fled North Carolina beach towns, farmers pulled up their crops, and the Navy ordered ships to sea so they could endure the punishing wind and waves in open water.

All eyes were on Irene's projected path, which showed it bringing misery to every city along the I-95 corridor, including Washington, New York and Boston. The former chief of the National Hurricane Center called it one of his three worst possible situations.

"One of my greatest nightmares was having a major hurricane go up the whole Northeast Coast," Max Mayfield, the center's retired director, told The Associated Press.

He said the damage will probably climb into billions of dollars: "This is going to have an impact on the United States economy."

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said damages could exceed most previous storms because so many people live along the East Coast and property values are high.

"We've got a lot more people that are potentially in the path of this storm," FEMA Director Craig Fugate said in an interview with The Associated Press. "This is one of the largest populations that will be impacted by one storm at one time."

The storm would "have a lot of impact well away from the coastline," he added. "A little bit of damage over big areas with large populations can add up fast."

Irene was massive, with tropical-force winds extending almost twice as far as normal, about the same size as Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

"It's not going to be a Katrina, but it's serious," said MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel. "People have to take it seriously."

The governors of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New York and New Jersey declared emergencies to free up resources, and authorities all the way to New England urged residents in low-lying areas to gather supplies and learn the way to a safe location.

Irene was expected to come ashore Saturday in North Carolina with 115 mph winds and a storm surge of 5 to 10 feet. It could dump a foot of rain, with as much as 15 inches falling in some places along the coast and around Chesapeake Bay.

Scientists predict Irene will then chug up the coast. Some forecasts showed it taking dead aim at New York City, with its eye passing over Brooklyn and Manhattan before weakening and trudging through New England.

If the storm strikes New York, it will probably be a Category 1 or 2, depending on its exact track, hurricane specialist John Cangialosi said.

Hurricanes are rare in the Northeast because the region's cooler seas tend to weaken storms as they approach, and they have to take a narrow track to strike New York without first hitting other parts of the coast and weakening there.

Still, strong storms have been known to unleash serious damage in an urban environment already surrounded by water.

A September 1821 hurricane raised tides by 13 feet in an hour and flooded all of Manhattan south of Canal Street - an area that now includes the nation's financial capital. An infamous 1938 storm dubbed the Long Island Express came ashore about 75 miles east of the city and then hit New England, killing 700 people and leaving 63,000 homeless.

On Thursday in North Carolina, three coastal counties issued evacuation orders covering more than 200,000 people, including tourists and full-time residents.

Dania Armstrong of New York sat outside a motel smoking a cigarette while she waited for her family to get ready. Armstrong, her daughter and grandchildren had already been ordered off the island of Ocracoke and planned to leave the town of Buxton soon.

"I've been coming down here for 50 years," she said. "I know what's coming. It's time to leave. You don't want to be here when it hits."

John Robeson, an accountant from New Jersey, brought his wife and two children down for a week, but they were cutting the trip short after three days.

"I'm disappointed," he said as he loaded his car. "You wait all year. Talk about it. Make plans for your vacation. And now this. It's a bad break."

Other year-round residents planned to ride it out, despite warnings from authorities that they will be on their own immediately after the storm.

"If you leave, you can't get back for days because of the roads, and you don't know what's going on with your property," said Kathy MacKenzie, who works at Dillon's Corner, a general store in Buxton.

Ollie Jarvis, the store's owner, said he's staying and preparing for the worst. During Hurricane Emily in 1993, his store was flooded with 18 inches of water and sand from a storm surge. Like a spear, the water pushed a T-shirt rack filled with clothes through the ceiling. They still have the high-water mark on a wall near the cash register.

"I can't leave. You have to worry about the stuff you have. You have to save what you can," he said.

Bobby Overbey of Virginia Beach, Va., pulled into a gas station in his Jeep with two surfboards hanging on the back. He planned to stay, despite the evacuation orders.

Usually the waves top out at 2 to 3 feet. On Thursday, he was riding 4- and 5-foot waves.

"You live for this," he said.

Farmers grimly accepted the fate of their crops. Strong winds and widespread flooding could mean billions of dollars in losses for corn, cotton, soybean, tobacco and timber growers. While most farmers have disaster insurance, policies often pay only about 70 percent of actual losses.

Wilson Daughtry owns Alligator River Growers near Engelhard, near Pamlico Sound. Though he is under a mandatory evacuation order, Daughtry and his workers planned to stay to salvage what corn and squash they can.

He said he's lost count of how many times his crops have been wiped out by storms.

"Hurricanes are just part of doing business down here," he said.

In Virginia, officials recalled Hurricane Isabel in 2003, which came ashore as a Category 1, killed more than 30 people and caused more than $1 billion in property damage. The low-lying Hampton Roads region is at high risk of flooding from storm surge and heavy rains. Widespread power outages are likely.

The Navy ordered many of its ships at Norfolk Naval Station out to sea to wait out the storm, including the aircraft carrier USS Dwight Eisenhower, as well as destroyers and submarines.

Gearing up for approaching hurricanes is an almost annual occurrence in coastal North Carolina and Virginia, so planning is extensive and almost second-nature.

Building codes along the Outer Banks require structures to be reinforced to withstand sustained winds of up to 110 mph and gusts up to 130 mph. Houses close to the water must be elevated on pilings to keep them above storm surges, and required setbacks preserve sand dunes to provide additional protection.

It could be a different story as the storm moves up the coast.

In Washington, where residents were rattled by a rare earthquake Tuesday, officials warned people to be prepared for stormy conditions regardless of Irene's exact path and to stay away from the beaches in the region.

The Philadelphia area could get more than a half-foot of rain, accompanied by sustained winds up to 50 mph. Mayor Michael Nutter said it could be the worst storm in at least 50 years. August has already been one of the rainiest months in city history.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie asked all visitors to the shore to get out by midday Friday. He said Irene was poised to be a "serious, significant event," with flooding a threat across the entire state. A mandatory evacuation was ordered for Cape May County.

In a normal hurricane, tropical storm-force winds extend about 150 miles from the eye. Irene's winds extend nearly 250 miles.

Another worry is that the ground is already saturated in the Northeast after a wet spring and summer. That means trees and power lines will be more vulnerable to winds, like during Hurricane Isabel, Mayfield said.

New York is especially susceptible with its large subway network and the waterways around the city, Mayfield said.

"In many ways, a Category 2 or stronger storm hitting New York is a lot of people's nightmare," said Susan Cutter, director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina.

High water in the harbor and rivers, along with a high tide at the end of the month because of the new moon, could cause serious flooding. New York's three airports are close to the water, putting them at risk, too, Cutter said.

And if the storm shifts further to the west, placing New York City on the stronger right-hand quadrant of the storm, "that is what's going to push this wall of water into the bays and the Hudson River."

Libyan rebels hunt Gadhafi, try to secure capital

Libyan rebels hunt Gadhafi, try to secure capital

Libyan rebels patrol to try and find Moammar Gadhafi's relatives as they got rumors that one of his son was hiding inside the building, in Tripoli, Libya, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011. A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed Wednesday to fight on "until victory or martyrdom," as rebel fighters tried to end scattered attacks by regime loyalists in the nervous capital.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Libyans hunting Moammar Gadhafi offered a $2 million bounty on the fallen dictator's head and amnesty for anyone who kills or captures him as rebels battled Wednesday to clear the last pockets of resistance from the capital Tripoli.

While pockets of die-hard loyalists kept up the fight to defend Gadhafi, his support was crumbling by the hour, and even his foreign minister said his 42-year rule was over.

Asked by the British broadcaster Channel 4 if a negotiated settlement or safe passage for Gadhafi from Libya were still possible, Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi said: "It looks like things have passed this kind of solution."

Later, Col. Khalifa Mohammed, Gadhafi's deputy of intelligence chief, told Al-Arabiya television that he had defected to the rebels.

A defiant Gadhafi vowed from hiding to fight on "until victory or martyrdom," in an audio message early Wednesday.

Rebel leaders made first moves to extend their political control to the entire country and set up a new government in the capital. During Libya's six-month civil war, opposition leaders had established their interim administration, the National Transitional Council, in the eastern city of Benghazi, which fell under rebel control shortly after the outbreak of widespread anti-regime protests in February.

"Members of the council are now moving one by one from Benghazi to Tripoli," said Mansour Seyf al-Nasr, the Libyan opposition's new ambassador to France.

Still Tripoli was far from pacified, with pro-regime snipers cutting off the road to the airport and other loyalist fighters launching repeated attacks on Gadhafi's captured private compound. Four Italian journalists were kidnapped on the highway to Tripoli around the city of Zawiya, 30 miles west of the capital.

The city's streets were largely empty of civilians. Rebels manned checkpoints every few hundred yards, but little else could be seen but the debris of days of fighting and weeks of accumulated garbage.

Intense clashes broke out in the Abu Salim neighborhood, a regime stronghold next to Gadhafi's vast Bab al-Aziziya compound, the symbolic center of his regime, which the rebels captured Tuesday after a fierce battle. Gadhafi loyalists inside Abu Salim were firing into the captured compound, rebels said.

Rebels found no sign of Gadhafi after the Tuesday battle for the compound, but rumors churned of his possible whereabouts. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was no evidence to indicate he had left Libya, but rebel officials acknowledged they could not find him.

"He might be in Sirte or any other place," Jibril said in Paris. Sirte, a coastal city 250 miles from Tripoli, is Gadhafi's hometown and a bastion of regime support.

Mohammed al-Herizi, an opposition official, said a group of Tripoli businessmen had announced a $2 million reward for the arrest or killing of Gadhafi. But rebel spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani said the rebels themselves had only offered amnesty for anyone who kills him or hands him over.

"The biggest prize is to offer amnesty, not to give money," he said.

Rebel fighters, who by Wednesday afternoon controlled most of the Bab al-Aziziya compound, were using it as staging area for operations, loading huge trucks with ammunition and discussing deployments. But they repeatedly faced loyalist attacks Wednesday, with pro-Gadhafi snipers firing on the fighters from tall buildings in Abu Salim, said Mohammed Amin, a rebel fighter.

He said the rebels had surrounded Abu Salim, home to the country's most notorious prison and scene of a 1996 massacre of protesting political prisoners, but had been unable to push into it.

Al-Sadeq al-Kabir, a rebel spokesman, said thousands of prisoners had been released, many of them political prisoners who had been held there for years.

He also denied media reports that Gadhafi had offered a cease-fire.

The rebels claim they control the Tripoli airport but are still clashing with Gadhafi forces in the streets around it. AP reporters said the road leading to the airport was closed because of heavy fire by pro-regime snipers. One rebel fighter, Khalil Mabrouk, said most of the airport was cleared of Gadhafi soldiers, but pro-Gadhafi's forces to the south were firing rockets and shelling rebel positions inside.

Dozens of foreign journalists were released after being held captive for days by pro-government gunmen at Tripoli's once-luxurious Rixos Hotel near Abu Salim and Bab al-Aziziya.

The hotel was where rotating tours of foreign journalists had lived for the past six months, closely watched by government minders and taken on approved tours. But it had become a de facto prison after the rebels swept into the city Sunday, with a team of gunmen refusing to let the journalists leave. As the days ticked by, power outages became near-constant, leaving reporters without air condition in sweltering summer heat. Hotel employees fled and the journalists had to scrounge the hotel for food and water in the final days.

Since Sunday, heavy gunbattles have raged all around the hotel, and journalists had to frequently take cover.

One guard expressed surprise when told most of the city was in rebel hands. Finally, as the rebels drew closer, most of the guards left, leaving just a pair of increasingly nervous gunmen. The journalists were suddenly freed Wednesday, as the International Committee of the Red Cross stepped in to negotiate their release.

Elsewhere in the city, streets were deserted except for the rebel checkpoints, where fighters looked for Gadhafi supporters and searched cars for weapons. At one checkpoint, one of the once-ubiquitous pictures of Gadhafi had been laid on the ground so cars had to drive over it.

Many buildings were covered in the pro-rebel graffiti that has appeared over the last few days.

Trash, already a problem in the waning months of Gadhafi's rule, now covers many streets and sidewalks. The shredded remains of Gadhafi's green flags were also scattered across the city.

Inside Gadhafi's compound, two young rebel fighters searched through a heap of pill packages in a building they said had served as a pharmacy. A broken TV, its screen shattered, lay on the ground in the courtyard. A dozen young fighters posed for pictures next to a gold-colored statue of a clenched fist squeezing a plane - a memorial to the 1986 U.S. airstrikes on the compound in retaliation for a bombing at a German disco frequented by U.S. servicemen.

"The blood of our martyrs will not be spilled in vain," the fighters chanted, pumping their fists.

The rebels also targeted other symbols of the regime, including the homes of some of Gadhafi's children.

About 200 people ransacked the beachfront villa of Gadhafi's son al-Saadi, driving off with four of his cars - a Lamborghini, a BMW, an Audi and a Toyota station wagon, said Seif Allah, a rebel fighter who joined in the looting and took a bottle of gin and a pair of Diesel jeans.

After a five-hour gunbattle with guards, rebels also ransacked the mansion of Gadhafi's daughter Aisha.

Clothes and DVDs were strewn on the floor of the master bedroom, including a DVD about getting in shape after childbirth. In a sitting area, a gold-colored statue of a mermaid with Aisha's face framed a sofa.

In recent years, Gadhafi's six sons had become increasingly entangled in scandals. Hannibal was arrested in 2008 for beating a hotel employee in Switzerland and al-Saadi also had run-ins with police in Europe and a history of drug and alcohol abuse. The children's misbehavior further heightened resentment against the regime.

But even as his 42-year-old regime was crumbling around him, Gadhafi vowed not to surrender. In an audio message early Wednesday, he called on residents of the Libyan capital and loyal tribesmen to free Tripoli from the "devils and traitors" who have overrun it.

Rebel officials are eager to prove they can bring a stable political future for Libya, and that their movement is more than an often-fractious collection of tribes, ethnicities and semiautonomous militias.

Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the opposition Cabinet, said after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris that rebel officials were forming a cabinet and that a national congress would also be created to represent the country's cities. That congress will form a committee to write a new constitution, and a council to oversee elections. Parliamentary elections will come first he said, with presidential elections will later follow.

A new national army will also be created out of the rebel movement, Jibril said.

"We will invite everyone carrying weapons to join the army or the police force," he said. "There are (also) the unemployed, and they will be invited to join the standing army."

The rebels have taken control of much of Libya, sweeping through the country with the help of a relentless NATO air campaign that included including about 7,500 strike attacks against Gadhafi's forces.

Fighting also continued in areas outside of Tripoli. Jibril said pro-government forces were shelling a number of southern cities. Residents of the port town of Zwara, about 70 miles west of the capital, said they had suffered through four days of shelling.

All roads to the city had been cut off, said Sefask al-Azaabi, a 29-year-old rebel.

As government forces have been defeated elsewhere, Gadhafi's forces "take their revenge by shelling our town," he said by telephone, adding that rebel forces were running low on supplies.

"We are appealing to the (rebel) military council to send us reinforcements or this town will be finished in no time," he said.

Libyan rebels storm seat of Gadhafi's power

Libyan rebels storm seat of Gadhafi's power

Rebel fighter brakes the glass of the Moammar Gadhafi's tent inside the main compound in Bab Al-Aziziya in Tripoli, LIbya, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011.Libyan rebels stormed Moammar Gadhafi's main military compound in Tripoli Tuesday after fierce fighting with forces loyal to his regime that rocked the capital as the longtime leader refused to surrender despite the stunning advances by opposition forces.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Hundreds of Libyan rebels stormed Moammar Gadhafi's compound Tuesday, charging wildly through the symbolic heart of the crumbling regime as they killed loyalist troops, looted armories and knocked the head off a statue of the besieged dictator. But they found no sign of the man himself.

The storming of Bab al-Aziziya, long the nexus of Gadhafi's power, marked the effective collapse of his 42-year-old regime. But with Gadhafi and his powerful sons still unaccounted for - and gunbattles flaring across the nervous city - the fighters cannot declare victory.

The rebel force entered the compound after fighting for five hours with Gadhafi loyalists outside, using mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. They killed some of those who defended the compound and hauled off thousands of rifles, crates of weapons and trucks with guns mounted on the back in a frenzy of looting.

"We're looking for Gadhafi now. We have to find him now," said Sohaib Nefati, a rebel sitting against a wall with a Kalashnikov rifle.

Abdel-Aziz Shafiya, a 19-year-old rebel dressed in camouflage with a rocket-propelled grenade slung over one shoulder and a Kalashnikov over the other, said the rebels believe Gadhafi is inside the compound but hiding underground.

"Wasn't he the one who called us rats? Now he is the rat underground," he said.

Shafiya said he felt "an explosion of joy" to be standing inside Gadhafi's stronghold in the capital after a lightning-quick rebel advance. He had left the rebel-held western city of Misrata just two days earlier.

"I lost friends and relatives and now I can walk into Gadhafi's house," Shafiya said, choking up with emotion. "Many of my friends have died and now all of that meant something."

Tripoli's new rebel military chief, Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, said at nightfall that a small area of the vast compound was still under the control of regime fighters and heavy shooting was heard across Tripoli toward midnight.

The atmosphere in the compound was a mix of joyful celebration and tension. The air was thick with smoke from the battles, and the boom of mortars and the crackle of gunfire was constant. Rebels chanted "Allahu akbar" or "God is great" and on loudspeakers they cried: "Al-Hamdullilah," or "Thank God."

As the fighters stormed in, they captured a guard at the gates and threw him to the ground, slamming rifle butts into his back. A hostile crowd gathered around, punching and kicking him until one rebel stepped in, stood over him and kept the crowd at bay. Inside the walls, a few bodies of Gadhafi fighters - one with a gaping head wound from a gunshot - were sprawled on the ground.

Several young men wrenched the head from a statue of Gadhafi and kicked it around. One lifted it above his head while his jubilant comrades danced and yelled around him. Fighters with long beards hugged each other and flashed the "V" for victory sign. Others carried injured rebels to ambulances.

A fighter climbed atop the iconic statue of a huge golden fist clenching a model of an American warplane and shot his machine gun in the air in celebration. The statue stands outside a building that was once Gadhafi's home, preserved with the pockmarks of an American bombing in 1986 as a symbol of his defiance.

Gadhafi delivered many fiery speeches from the balcony of that house, railing against the West. It was there that he appeared on television six months ago, at the beginning of the uprising, mocking his opponents and saying his supporters would "purify Libya inch by inch, house by house, alley by alley."

Bab al-Aziziya has since been pummeled many times over by NATO bombings in the air campaign against the regime that began in March.

Thousands of rebels converged on the compound after it was breached, snatching ammunition and arms from depots inside. They found brand-new rifles still in their paper wrappings.

Scuffles broke out among rebels pushing and shoving to get inside two white buildings where the rifles, machine guns and handguns are stored. They came out drenched in sweat from the struggles.

One fighter gleefully blasted rocket-propelled grenades over the compound's eastern wall, with little idea about what was happening on the other side.

Ali Sameer, a Tripoli resident, stood with three brand-new rifles resting on his legs.

"They are for my friends. I don't even know how to fight," he said.

The rebels carted out boxes of the weapons and ammunition, and some drove off with trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns on the back.

One drove out with a golf cart. Another walked out with a fan. Others were busy ripping down posters of Gadhafi.

Near Gadhafi's old home with the statue outside, the body of a dead regime loyalist lay inside a round building with glass windows shot out. The body was partly covered by a blanket, the head sticking out with a gaping gunshot wound.

A large tent nearby was on fire.

Gadhafi has a famous penchant for Bedouin-style tents, meant to symbolize his roots as a simple desert dweller. He received guests in the tents inside Bab al-Aziziya.

The storming of the compound was a new high for the rebels in what has been an emotional roller coaster since they moved into Tripoli on Sunday night. It began with euphoria and claims that they had taken over most of the city with little resistance. The first night they partied in Green Square, a major symbol of the regime where Gadhafi supporters had held almost nightly rallies throughout the uprising. And it seemed Gadhafi rule was teetering on the brink of collapse.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, there was a shocking setback. The rebels had claimed that they arrested Gadhafi's son and heir apparent, Seif al-Islam. It was confirmed by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, which has charged him and his father with crimes against humanity.

But inexplicably, Seif al-Islam showed up at the hotel where foreign journalists are staying under the close watch of regime minders in early morning hours of Tuesday. He giddily took reporters on an eerie drive in the middle of the night to see hundreds of pro-regime gunmen around Bab al-Aziziya and at least a hundred more lined up outside, where guns were being handed out to volunteers.

The rebels waited hours to explain, saying word of his capture had come from secondhand reports from some rebels that were never confirmed and had been leaked to journalists. But in an indication that the announcement of his arrest might have been a ruse calculated to demoralize the regime, Mahmoud Jibril, head of the rebels' acting Cabinet, said the reports had some political and military benefits.

"About 30 officers and soldiers surrendered when they heard the news, which helped us take over Bab al-Aziziya swiftly," he said. "And 11 countries recognized the (rebels') National Transitional Council after receiving news of his arrest."

By Tuesday morning, it looked like the capital might descend into bloody urban warfare. There was sporadic gunfire in many parts. The rebels were in control of parts of the city, though it was not clear how extensive their control really was. Then the fighting took focus around Gadhafi's compound.

However, rebels were trying to establish civilian control in the chaotic city, even while fire fights continued.

In a deserted five-star hotel on the city's beachfront, a group of rebel leaders who had operated underground for the past six months announced that they had formed a 24-member city council and would now be in charge.

Deputy council chief Usama el-Abed el-Abed called on city workers to return their jobs so life could begin to return to normal. However, the founding members had not invited guests, saying the city was still too dangerous for large gatherings.

Gadhafi, meanwhile, has not been heard from since Sunday, when rebels entered Tripoli and he delivered a series of angry and defiant audio messages that were apparently phoned in to state television.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian head of the World Chess Federation who has known Gadhafi for years, said he spoke Tuesday by telephone with Gadhafi, who told him he was "alive and well and still in Tripoli." The report could not be independently confirmed.

In other parts of the capital, the rebels said they were also in control of state television. They raised their tricolor flag on the top of the building. Rebels claimed they also control the airport.

In Tripoli's Green Square, hundreds of rebels celebrated the storming of Bab al-Aziziya, dancing and clapping and waving the red, green and black rebel flag and firing celebratory gunfire in the air.

Libya's former deputy ambassador to the U.N. said he expected the entire country would be in rebel hands within 72 hours. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, who with other diplomats has continued to work at the Libyan mission since disavowing Gadhafi in February, said Tuesday he expects Libya will be "totally liberated."

In the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi, hundreds of miles east of Tripoli, the news of the Bab al-Aziziya storming was greeted with celebratory gunfire and firecrackers. Men drove around waving rebel flags.

Wael Abu Khris, a shipping agent turned rebel fighter from Tripoli, was walking around Gadhafi's compound after the battle, carrying his Kalashnikov.

"I feel great satisfaction. We are at last free of this dictator," he said. "Libya is free at last. No more Gadhafi!"

East Coast rocked by strongest quake since 1944

East Coast rocked by strongest quake since 1944

Co-workers Susan Sproul, left, and Susan Davidson hug after evacuating from their building after an earthquake was felt in Baltimore, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011. Downtown office buildings were cleared and workers were waiting for clearance to re-enter.

MINERAL, Va. (AP) -- The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years shook buildings and rattled nerves from Georgia to Maine on Tuesday. Frightened office workers spilled into the streets in New York, and parts of the White House, Capitol and Pentagon were evacuated.

There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries.

The National Cathedral said its central tower and three of its four corner spires were damaged, but the White House said advisers had told President Barack Obama there were no reports of major damage to the nation's infrastructure, including airports and nuclear facilities.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 5.8 and was centered 90 miles southwest of Washington. It was mild by West Coast standards, but the East Coast is not used to quakes of any size, and this one briefly raised fears of a terror attack less than three weeks before the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.

"I thought I was having maybe a heart attack, and I saw everybody running," said Adrian Ollivierre, an accountant who was in his office on the 60th floor of the Empire State Building when the shaking began. "I think what it is, is the paranoia that happens from 9/11, and that's why I'm still out here - because, I'm sorry, I'm not playing with my life."

Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station, in the same county as the epicenter, were automatically taken off line by safety systems, said Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

At the Pentagon, a low rumbling built until the building itself was shaking, and people ran into the corridors of the complex. The shaking continued there, to shouts of "Evacuate! Evacuate!" The main damage to the building, the largest single workspace for the federal government, came from a broken water pipe.

The Park Service closed all monuments and memorials on the National Mall, and ceiling tiles fell at Reagan National Airport outside Washington. Many nonessential workers in Washington were sent home for the day. The Capitol was reopened by late afternoon for people to retrieve their things.

The National Cathedral said cracks had appeared in the flying buttresses around the apse at one end. "Everyone here is safe," the cathedral said on its official Twitter feed. "Please pray for the Cathedral as there has been some damage."

In lower Manhattan, the 26-story federal courthouse, blocks from ground zero of the Sept. 11 attacks, began swaying, and hundreds of people streamed out of the building.

The New York police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, was in a meeting with top deputies planning security for the upcoming anniversary when the shaking started. Workers in the Empire State Building spilled into the streets, some having descended dozens of flights of stairs.

"I thought we'd been hit by an airplane," said one worker, Marty Wiesner.

New York District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance was starting a news conference about the dismissal of the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, when the shaking began. Reporters and aides began rushing out the door until it became clear it was subsiding.

On Wall Street, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange did not shake, officials said, but the Dow Jones industrial average sank 60 points soon after the quake struck. The Dow began rising again a half-hour later and finished the day up 322 points.

Shaking was felt as far south as Charleston, S.C., as far north as Maine and as far west as Cincinnati and Atlanta. It was also felt on Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, where Obama is taking summer vacation and was starting a round of golf when the quake struck at 1:51 p.m. EDT.

Obama led a conference call Tuesday afternoon on the earthquake with top administration officials, including his homeland security secretary, national security adviser and administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Around Mineral, Va., a small town close to the epicenter, people milled around in their lawns, on sidewalks and parking lots, still rattled and leery of re-entering buildings. All over town, masonry was crumpled, and there were stores with shelved contents strewn on the floor. Several display windows at businesses in the tiny heart of downtown were broken and lay in jagged shards.

Carmen Bonano, who has a 1-year-old granddaughter, sat on the porch of her family's white-frame house, its twin brick chimneys destroyed. Her voice still quavered with fear.

"The fridge came down off the wall and things started falling. I just pushed the refrigerator out of the way, grabbed the baby and ran," she said.

By the standards of the West Coast, where earthquakes are much more common, the Virginia quake was mild. Since 1900, there have been 50 quakes of magnitude 5.8 or greater in California alone. Quakes in the East tend to be felt across a much broader area.

"The waves are able to reverberate and travel pretty happily out for miles," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough.

The Geological Survey put the quake in its yellow alert category, meaning there was potential for local damage but relatively little economic damage.

The agency said the quake was 3.7 miles beneath the surface, but scientists said they may never be able to map the exact fault. Aftershocks may help to outline it, said Rowena Lohman, a seismologist at Cornell University. There were at least two aftershocks, magnitudes 2.2 and 2.8.

The last quake of equal power to strike the East Coast was in New York in 1944. The largest East Coast quake on record was a 7.3 that hit South Carolina in 1886. In 1897, a magnitude-5.9 quake was recorded at Giles County, Va., the largest on record in that state.

A 5.8-magnitude quake releases as much energy as almost eight kilotons of TNT, about half the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The earthquake that devastated Japan earlier this year released more than 60,000 times as much energy as Tuesday's.

The Virginia quake came a day after an earthquake in Colorado toppled groceries off shelves and caused minor damage to homes in the southern part of the state and in northern New Mexico. No injuries were reported as aftershocks continued Tuesday.

On the East Coast, Amtrak said its trains along the Northeast Corridor between Baltimore and Washington were operating at reduced speeds and crews were inspecting stations and railroad infrastructure before returning to normal.

In Charleston, W.Va., hundreds of workers left the state Capitol building and employees at other downtown office buildings were asked to leave temporarily.

"The whole building shook," said Jennifer Bundy, a spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court. "You could feel two different shakes. Everybody just kind of came out on their own."

In Ohio, office buildings swayed in Columbus and Cincinnati, and the press box at Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians, shook. At least one building near the Statehouse was evacuated in downtown Columbus.

In downtown Baltimore, the quake sent office workers into the streets, where lamp posts swayed slightly as they called family and friends to check in.

John Gurlach, air traffic controller at the Morgantown Municipal Airport in West Virginia, was in a 40-foot-tall tower when the earth trembled.

"There were two of us looking at each other saying, `What's that?'" he said, even as a commuter plane was landing. "It was noticeably shaking. It felt like a B-52 unloading."

Immediately, the phone rang from the nearest airport in Clarksburg, and a computer began spitting out green strips of paper - alerts from other airports in New York and Washington issuing ground stops "due to earthquake."

The earthquake caused a stir online, where people posted to Facebook and Twitter within seconds and described what they had felt. The keywords in posts, or hashtags, included "DCquake," "VAquake" and "Columbusquake," an indication of how broadly the quake was experienced.

"People pouring out of buildings and onto the sidewalks and Into Farragut Park in downtown DC," Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist, posted on Twitter.

Quake photos and videos also made the rounds. A handful were authentic. Many more were not - they were favorite earthquake scenes from Hollywood blockbusters or footage of people shaking their glasses and plates at an Olive Garden.

Nature hike took scout leader into attacker's path

Nature hike took scout leader into attacker's path

This undated photo provided by the Anderson family shows 76-year-old Boy Scout leader Art Anderson who was stabbed to death Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011, while leading two scouts on a hiking trip in northern Indiana.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- As a 76-year-old scoutmaster led two young charges on a nature hike, they stopped to identify a tree - a pause authorities say put them in the path of a man who emerged from a nearby home with a 12-inch knife and stabbed the group's leader, leaving him to bleed to death on the trail.

The attack Sunday afternoon on the Nickel Plate Trail in Bunker Hill, 60 miles north of Indianapolis, killed Arthur Anderson, a scouting volunteer for 50 years who also mentored young computer whizzes at Kokomo High School and held a patent for an electrical device.

Authorities say that after approaching Anderson from behind and stabbing him without provocation, 22-year-old Shane Golitko returned to the home where he had earlier assaulted his mother, breaking her arm, and stabbed his two dogs, killing one of them. He fled in his mother's Jeep, leading police on an eight-mile chase before he was arrested.

Authorities said it wasn't clear what set Golitko off, and neither drugs nor alcohol were involved.

"It was a senseless act," said Indiana State Police Detective Tony Frawley, who had stated in a court affidavit that Golitko told him "that the reason he got the knife from his bedroom was to `stab the guy with the gray hair.'"

Golitko, who is charged him with murder and two felony counts of battery, is being held without bond in the Miami County Jail in Peru pending a Thursday court appearance in Miami Circuit Court. The prosecutor's office did not yet know of an attorney representing Golitko, and no one responded to a call to his home.

His mother, Valerie Henson, 48, had called police Sunday afternoon to say she had fled to a neighbor's home after an argument between her and her son escalated and he "kicked and punched her multiple times," Frawley's affidavit said. She was treated for a broken arm.

Golitko went to his room for the knife, then walked outside 150 yards to the trail "to the area where he had previously seen a male subject with `gray hair,'" Frawley said.

Anderson, assistant scoutmaster of a troop based at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Kokomo, was leading two scouts, ages 11 and 12, on a required 5-mile nature hike, accompanied by another man, authorities said. The group had stopped on the trail to discuss the tree. Anderson was attacked from behind, Indiana State Police Sgt. Tony Slocum said.

"He was doing probably the most innocent thing he could do, leading a group of Boy Scouts, and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Slocum said.

The other man in the group, Chee Lee, shielded the boys from the attack, then called police a minute after Henson's call, the affidavit said.

Another witness, a neighbor living near the trail, brought out a shirt and applied pressure to Anderson's neck wound, Slocum said, but the scoutmaster died at the scene.

Golitko, the affidavit said, returned home, "stabbed his two dogs with the same knife, wiped the knife clean, and returned the knife to his bedroom," the affidavit said. He began breaking windows and destroying things in the home, authorities said in the affidavit, then left in the Jeep. After his arrest, he spat on a jail officer, which led to the second battery charge.

Miami County Prosecutor Bruce Embrey said Golitko was arrested once before as an adult in Miami County, for possession of marijuana. He went through a diversion program in which the crime was reduced to a misdemeanor.

Golitko also was arrested for assault in Belmont County, Ohio, in July 2010 but the charge later was dismissed, court records show.

Paco Solis, who succeeded Anderson as scoutmaster of their troop, described his friend Monday as "a great man" who was a mentor in the community and volunteered with a robotics team at Kokomo High School in addition to his work with the scouts.

"His life revolved around youth and being a servant," Solis said, adding that Anderson worked closely with new scouts and with younger scouts in particular.

Nick Losekamp, a district executive for the Boy Scouts' Sagamore Council in Kokomo, described Anderson as a great leader, training the boys to lead by example and motivate others.

"He was a nice guy, he was. He had lots of stories to tell," Losekamp said.

Gadhafi's regime teeters on collapse in Libya

Gadhafi's regime teeters on collapse in Libya

Libyan rebel fighters fire towards forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi during fierce gunfire in downtown Tripoli, Libya, Monday, Aug. 22, 2011. World leaders said Monday the end is near for Moammar Gadhafi's regime and began planning for Libya's future without the man who has held power there for 42 years.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was nowhere to be found Monday as his 42-year rule teetered on the brink of collapse. Months of NATO airstrikes have left his Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli largely demolished. Most of his security forces fled or surrendered when rebel forces rolled into the capital Sunday night and took control of most of the city. And three of his sons are under arrest.

A mood of joy mixed with trepidation settled over the capital, with the rebels still fighting pockets of fierce resistance from regime loyalists firing mortars and anti-aircraft guns. Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, who was in Tripoli, said the "danger is still there" as long as Gadhafi remains on the run.

"The real moment of victory is when Gadhafi is captured," Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the rebel National Transitional Council, told a news conference in the opposition's de facto capital of Benghazi, hundreds of miles east of Tripoli. He said the rebels have no idea where Gadhafi is and whether he is even in Tripoli. An Obama administration official said the U.S. had no indication that Gadhafi had left Libya.

President Barack Obama said the situation in Libya reached a tipping point in recent days after a five month NATO-led bombing campaign. However, he acknowledged that the situation remained fluid and that elements of the regime remained a threat.

The Obama administration official said U.S. officials and NATO partners had not been in contact with Gadhafi during the siege on Tripoli. However, the official said American and NATO representatives, as well as Libyan rebels, had all been in contact with people around Gadhafi, mostly those looking for a way out.

NATO vowed to keep up its air campaign until all pro-Gadhafi forces surrender or return to their barracks. The alliance's warplanes have hit at least 40 targets in and around Tripoli in the past two days - the highest number on a single geographic location since the bombing started in March, NATO said.

A day after the rebels rode into the city of 2 million, the situation remained volatile. Even though rebels claimed they were in control of most of Tripoli, they still appeared to be on the defensive, ducking for cover during frequent clashes with regime fighters. Throughout the day, the rebels sent reinforcements to the city from the north, south and southeast, and a rebel field commander said more than 4,000 fighters were part of the final push to bring down the regime.

The Obama administration official said the U.S. believes 90 percent of the capital is under rebel control, while regime loyalists still control Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte and the southern city of Sabha.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publically.

Intense gunbattles erupted throughout the day and city was too unstable for any mass celebrations in the streets.

Clashes broke out early in the day at Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound when government tanks emerged from the complex and opened fire at rebels trying to get in, according to the rebel spokesman Abdel-Rahman and a neighbor.

Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next to the Gadhafi compound, said there appeared to be only a few tanks belonging to the remaining Gadhafi forces who have not fled or surrendered.

"When I climb the stairs and look from the roof, I see nothing at Bab al-Aziziyah. It is totally deserted except for the house which was raided by U.S. in 1986. Nothing else is there. Gadhafi can't be there," he said. "NATO has demolished it all and nothing remained."

But Abdel-Rahman said Gadhafi still has forces to be reckoned with.

"We know that until now, Tripoli is encircled by Gadhafi brigades positioned at the outskirts of the capital, in camps, such as al-Yarmouk in the south of Tripoli. They can be in the middle of the city in half an hour."

Still, revelers flocked to Green Square, the symbolic heart of the fading Gadhafi regime. They flashed the "V" for victory sign and motorists circled the plaza, honking horns and waving rebel flags.

"We came out today to feel a bit of freedom," Ashraf Halati, a 30-year-old Tripoli resident, said as he and four of his friends watched several hundred people celebrating at Green Square. "We still don't believe that this is happening."

Late Sunday night, rebels took over Green Square, which they have been calling Martyrs' Square, restoring the name it had before Gadhafi's regime took power more than four decades ago. Google's map of Tripoli has already adopted the new name. The opposition also took up the pre-Gadhafi flag of Libya as their own at the start of their uprising six months ago.

On Monday, rebels manned checkpoints on the western approaches to the city, handing out candy to motorists and inquiring about their destinations.

Most of the city, a metropolis of some 2 million people on the Mediterranean coast, was on edge. Stores were shuttered and large areas were lifeless, including the old gold market, in the past a draw for tourists.

Around midday Monday, rebel fighters took over a women's police college near the Mediterranean and declared that they would set up their new headquarters there.

"We are going to protect the city of Tripoli from all attacks and threats," fighter Munir al-Ayan said after kneeling and kissing the ground in the compound.

"I was bowing down to the Almighty God who helped us get rid of this brutal dictator," he later explained.

The compound's previous inhabitants appeared to have left in haste, and their belongings were not touched.

In one office, women's green police uniforms dangled from hangers, and black dress boots stood nearby. A computer and a TV screen were still in place. Pictures of Gadhafi adorned the wall. In another room, the police marching band's instruments were stacked next to a wall, including drums and a trumpet.

But the rebels' optimistic mood of the morning quickly changed. By mid-afternoon, the college came under heavy fire. Snipers from nearby high-rises aimed at motorists speeding by. An anti-aircraft gun pounded the compound, creating a deafening noise. A handful of rebel fighters inside seemed jumpy and unsure what to do.

Gadhafi loyalists also launched attacks in two other areas of Tripoli, said Ashraf Hussein, a rebel fighter who sat pressed against an inner wall of the compound for safety.

Drivers trying to evade sniper fire ducked into side streets, or stopped at rebel checkpoints to find out whether the next stretch was safe. Booms of mortar rounds and small rockets reverberated across the city, mixed with battle cries of "Allahu akbar," or God is Great.

Later Monday, another battle erupted around a school where rebels and journalists had set up camp. Rebels fired small rockets, and Gadhafi troops responded with mortar shells.

The fighting made clear that taking full control of Tripoli will be difficult, especially as long as Gadhafi has not surfaced.

There were also signs of tension between rebels and residents at a gas station in the neighborhood of Gourji, with heated arguments over who should fill up first after rebels cut in line. Opposition leaders urged people to protect public property, and no looting was reported.

The Rixos hotel where foreign journalists are staying also remained under the control of Gadhafi forces, with two trucks loaded with anti-aircraft machine guns and pro-regime fighters and snipers posted behind trees.

About 30 journalists remained in the hotel where armed pro-Gadhafi youths kept a close eye on them and did not allow to them to exit the building. Journalists began to worry that food, water and fuel that powers the hotel's generator were running low.

Some of the journalists attempted to walk out of the hotel but were met with hostility by the armed guards, who said they were put there to "protect" them. Journalists said they felt like they were being held hostage.

Outside of Tripoli, almost all of eastern and western Libya is now under rebel control. The east of the country from the Egyptian border to Benghazi fell into rebel hands at the beginning of the uprising. In the weeks leading up to Sunday's lightning advance on Tripoli, the rebels consolidated control of the western Nafusa mountain range near the border with Tunisia. It was from there they staged the run on the capital. Most of the rest of the country was quickly falling into their hands.

The city of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown to the east of Tripoli, was the most important loyalist bastion to remain fully under his control.

On Monday, the city was without power and full of heavily guarded Gadhafi checkpoints, said Hassan al-Daroui, an official with the rebel council in Benghazi who was in touch with people there by satellite phone. Many people there were not even aware that rebels had pushed into the capital, 250 miles (400 kilometers) to the northwest, he said.

On Saturday rebels said they gained control of the oil refineries and airport at the oil terminal of Brega, on the road heading out of Benghazi west toward Tripoli.

The rebels' startling breakthrough on Sunday, after a long deadlock in Libya's 6-month-old civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, NATO and anti-Gadhafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from the west swept over 20 miles (30 kilometers) in a matter of hours, taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose up.

When rebels reached the gates of Tripoli, the special battalion entrusted by Gadhafi with guarding the capital promptly surrendered. Its commander, whose brother had been executed by Gadhafi years ago, was secretly loyal to the rebellion, a senior rebel official, Fathi al-Baja, told The Associated Press.

"It does appear that a lot of the Libyan forces themselves inside Tripoli either stayed at home or put down their arms - and that may bode well for a diminishing level of violence during the transitional period," Abdel-Jalil said.

Libyan state television was off the air Monday amid reports it had been seized by rebels.

Abdel-Jalil said rebels have now captured three of Gadhafi's sons. He said they detained al-Saadi Gadhafi on Sunday night along with his brother Seif al-Islam, the one-time heir apparent to his father.

Gadhafi had seven biological sons and a daughter who all played roles in their father's regime, some in diplomacy and others in business. Al-Saadi and his brothers Mutassim and Khamis all headed military brigades. One of his sons was killed in the civil war.

The International Criminal Court has confirmed the capture of Seif al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity. Another son, Mohammed, was under house arrest.

Abdel-Jalil began to look ahead to the task his council might face in shepherding a transition in power.

"We have much challenges and responsibilities, starting by healing the wounds, " he said, adding the rebels wanted to ensure safety, security, peace and prosperity.

"Gadhafi will be remembered through the acts he committed in Libya and the world, by political assassinations, arrests and executions and oppression of all the Libyan people who wanted to oust him from the beginning of this revolution."

Get the Shell Out of the Sacred Headwaters As Forwarded By John Mosley Jr.

• In a remote corner of British Columbia lies the Sacred Headwaters, the shared birthplace of three of North America's greatest wild salmon rivers and home to many threatened species, including grizzly bears, wild salmon and stone sheep.
  

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has their eye on the beautiful wilderness for coalbed methane drilling, an environmentally dangerous process that requires a maze of gas wells and pipelines and a huge amount of toxic wastewater. Coalbed methane drilling in Wyoming, Montana and Alberta has already proven to cause serious damage and the vulnerable wildlife of the Sacred Headwaters can't stand up to Shell by themselves.

We must protect our wild salmon, caribou, moose, and grizzlies from Shell's destructive coalbed methane drilling. Fill out a postcard to Shell telling them to stay out of the Sacred Headwaters. ForestEthics will deliver it for you!

Check Your Charity! As Forwarded By John Mosley Jr.

Check Your Charity! As Forwarded By John Mosley Jr.

It's not that the National Breast Cancer Research Center is a scam. It's more like a charity within a charity, run by an organization called the Walker Cancer Research Institute. The parent organization, based in Aberdeen, Md., dutifully files tax returns that show it raised $12.7 million in 2009 and spent 52% of it on fundraising. The return also reports that the organization spent exactly $487,505, or about 4% of its income, on research — most of it for probing plant life for anticancer compounds. Given that kind of research commitment, the group is unlikely to make significant advances anytime soon.

That said, Walker has a better chance of accomplishing something than the National Charity for Cancer Research, part of the Optimal Medical Foundation Inc. in Fremont, Calif. The group gathered $5.3 million in 2009, of which zero seems to have gone toward research. And don't confuse that with another Walker affiliate, called simply National Cancer Research Center, which uses the exact same fundraising letter as its California counterpart. Wonder what share of the $487,505 this branch gets to spend. "I shudder when I look at how many groups have 'cancer research' in their names," says Greg Simon, a board member and former head of FasterCures, a nonprofit focused on improving medical research. "The general public is throwing its money away."

That's why you may need to fire your cancer charity. Despite a terrible recession and its aftereffects, Americans will donate some $300 billion to charitable organizations this year, an avalanche of generosity that no other nation can match. If you've got a cause — poverty, veterans, ducks, the apocalypse — Americans will find a few nickels to spare. But when it comes to vicious diseases like cancer, we can be generous to a fault.

The cost of badly managed cancer charities isn't just wasted money. People are dying while these outfits mishandle funds that could go toward care. Search the word cancer in GuideStar, a database of nonprofits, and 7,747 names show up.

Traditional charities become focused on what they do — fundraising or attracting high-profile board members — rather than how they do. Many charities get started to memorialize loved ones, say, but never reach critical mass. "About 90% of nonprofits never make it over the $1 million mark," says Kathy Giusti, a former Big Pharma exec and cancer survivor who co-founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF). "It really gets hard to develop new ideas." Giusti's organization, which has brought a number of drugs to market in a short period of time using a venture-capital model, has leapfrogged other charities that target multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood.

The more prevalent the cancer, the more pernicious the problem. Pediatric cancer is a typical sector in which proliferation doesn't mean performance. Research focus is potentially diluted by thousands of small foundations. The mail is full of heart-tugging pitches replete with pictures of bald kids fighting cancer. "Last chance to send a teddy bear to a pediatric cancer patient for Valentine's Day," pleads a missive from the Children's Cancer Research Fund (CCRF), which has a nickel attached to make the plea more plaintive — a common direct-mail gimmick. In 2009 the charity sent $2.7 million to the University of Minnesota, its sole beneficiary, for research, which is admirable. But it also spent about $9.8 million on direct mail and other expenses to deliver that funding, which is a lot of teddy bears. Is it efficient? No, says Charity Navigator, a group that grades philanthropies and gives the CCRF a zero rating. Yes, says marketing manager Kris Huson, since investigators can often use seed money to apply for larger grants and multiply the money that CCRF provides, which can lead to bigger things. The university, for instance, has a brain-tumor vaccination in clinical trials.

Iran sentences 2 American men to 8 years in jail

Iran sentences 2 American men to 8 years in jail

FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011 file photo, US hikers Shane Bauer, left, and Josh Fattal, attend their trail at the Tehran Revolutionary Court, Iran. The website of Iran's state TV reported Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011 that two American hikers held in Iran have been sentenced to 8 years in jail each.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Two American men arrested more than two years ago while hiking along the Iraq-Iran border have been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges that include espionage, state TV reported Saturday, a sharp blow to hopes their release was imminent.

The announcement seemed to send a hard-line message from Iran's judiciary - which answers directly to the ruling clerics - weeks after the country's foreign minister suggested that the trial of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal could clear the way for their freedom.

It also was likely to raise speculation about Iran using the Americans as political bargaining chips and could bring added tensions to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's expected visit to New York next month for the annual General Assembly at the United Nations.

Authorities did not immediately confirm the report and made no further comment - although it was carried on Iran's highly controlled state media, which is frequently used to make high-profile announcements.

In Washington, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland restated U.S. appeals for their release. "It is time to reunite them with their families," she said.

A spokeswoman for the men's relatives said only that the families were aware of the report and awaiting confirmation.

"They are asking for privacy during this difficult time," Samantha Topping said.

The Americans, whose final court hearing was three weeks ago, deny the charges and say they were only hiking in a scenic and largely peaceful area of northern Iraq near the porous border.

They were detained in July 2009 along with a third American, Sarah Shourd, who was released in September 2010 on $500,000 bail and returned to the United States. Shourd's case "is still open," the state-run TV website irinn.ir reported.

Bauer and Fattal, both 29, have been sentenced to three years each for illegal entry into Iran and five years each for spying for the United States, the website quoted "informed sources" at Iran's judiciary as saying. It was not immediately clear if that includes time served. They have 20 days to appeal the sentence.

Their Iranian attorney, Masoud Shafiei, said he has not been notified of the verdict but he will definitely appeal the sentence if true.

"I've not been notified of any verdict in the case of my clients," Shafiei told The Associated Press. "This is a strong verdict inconsistent with the charges."

It's unclear what maximum sentence was possible by the Revolutionary Court, which handles state security issues. Espionage can bring the death penalty, but handing the sentence to a foreigner is unknown legal territory in Iran.

Iran insists that its judiciary is independent from political currents, but Iranian officials have used the detained Americans to draw attention to alleged mistreatment of Iranians in U.S. prisons and others who were held by U.S. forces in Iraq. The report on the sentences came just two days after President Barack Obama made his most direct call for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who remains among Iran's closest Mideast allies.

The case, meanwhile, has added to tensions between the United States and Iran that were already high over other issues, including Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

But Iran also recognizes the potential for goodwill gestures. Shourd's release - assisting with talks by Oman - came last year as Ahmadinejad was preparing for the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders.

The Americans say they mistakenly crossed into Iran when they stepped off a dirt road while hiking near a waterfall in the Kurdish region of Iraq. While other parts of Iraq remain troubled by violence, the semiautonomous Kurdish north has drawn tourists in recent years, including foreigners.

The U.S. government has appealed for the two men to be released, insisting that they have done nothing wrong. The two countries have no direct diplomatic relations, so Washington has been relying on an interests section at the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to follow the case.

Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he hoped "the trial of the two American defendants who were detained for the crime of illegally entering Iran will finally lead to their freedom." Their lawyer also had expressed hope they might receive a pardon for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Shourd is back living in Oakland, California; Bauer grew up in Onamia, Minnesota; and Fattal is from suburban Philadelphia. The last direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May 2010 when their mothers were permitted a short visit in Tehran.

Their case most closely parallels that of freelance journalist Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American who convicted of spying before being released in May 2009. Saberi was sentenced to eight years in prison, but an appeals court reduced that to a two-year suspended sentence and let her return to the U.S.

At the time, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said the court ordered the reduction as a gesture of "Islamic mercy" because Saberi had cooperated with authorities and expressed regret.

In May 2009, a French academic, Clotilde Reiss, also was freed after her 10-year sentence on espionage-related charges was commuted.

Last year, Iran freed an Iranian-American businessman, Reza Taghavi, was held for 29 months for alleged links to a bombing in the southern city of Shiraz, which killed 14 people. Taghavi denied any role in the attack.

Stocks turn lower as traders prepare for weekend

Stocks turn lower as traders prepare for weekend

A specilaist works at his on the floor of post the New York Stock Exchange, Friday Aug. 19, 2011.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The stock market piled on more losses Friday as investors began seeking the safety of cash or bonds ahead of the weekend.

The major indexes had fluctuated in a narrow range after Thursday's 419-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average. There was little news to help investors determine their next moves. But some traders did not want to take the chance of holding stocks if one of their biggest concerns, the European debt situation, worsened over the weekend.

"These things usually break out over the weekend and then you have a mad dash Monday to react to them," said Mike McGervey, the head of McGervey Wealth Management.

The drop late in the day recalled the 2008 financial crisis. Then, many investors stepped up their selling on Friday afternoons out of fears that another bank might fail over the weekend - as Lehman Brothers did on Sunday, Sept. 15.

The Dow fell 125 points, or 1.1 percent, to 10,864 in late afternoon trading. The Dow had been down 51 points at midday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 12, or 1.1 percent, to 1,127. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 28, or 1.2 percent, to 2,351.

The Dow's drop was due in part to Hewlett-Packard Co., which plunged 21 percent. The company said Thursday that it will close its mobile business, sell or spin off its PC business and pay $10 billion for a business software company.

The most notable economic news Friday came from JPMorgan Chase & Co. The bank joined other financial firms and cut its forecast for economic growth during the fourth quarter. It's now predicting growth of 1 percent, down from an earlier forecast of 2.5 percent.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.08 percent from late Thursday's 2.06 percent. It had been up to 2.11 percent earlier in the day. The yield fell below 2 percent Thursday for the first time as heavy demand sent its price sharply higher.

Overseas stock markets had larger drops than in the U.S. European banking stocks fell near two-and-a-half-year lows, dragged down by rumors about banks' potential losses on bonds issued by heavily-indebted governments. The selling in the U.S. has come in part because of fears that U.S. banks would be hurt if European countries default on their debt. Another concern: weakening European economies will hurt growth in the U.S.

Earlier Friday, Asian shares fell sharply, with major indexes in China and Japan losing more than 2.5 percent. However, some of those losses reflected selling in response to the drop in the U.S. Thursday.

As the selling continued overseas, gold rose as high as $1,881 an ounce. Oil prices fell as traders feared a global slowdown that would cut demand for crude.

A possible recession remains the focus of the markets. A recession is traditionally thought of as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, measured by a country's gross domestic product. With expectations of growth in the U.S. already low, investors worry that the economy can't withstand another unexpected event like the earthquake in Japan or the string of bad weather that ravaged the South earlier this year.

JPMorgan analyst Michael Feroli said Friday that business sentiment, household wealth and global growth all look worse than just a few weeks earlier. That will keep economic growth nearly flat in the first quarter of 2012, he said.

On Thursday, economists with Morgan Stanley said that the U.S. and Europe are "dangerously close to recession," adding, "it won't take much in the form of additional shocks to tip the balance."

The market's failure to bounce back Friday from Thursday's rout is making investors even more wary, said Kevin Dorwin, managing principal with Bingham Osborn & Scoarborough LLC in San Francisco.

"There's just nothing to inspire investors to take on more risk, and until that happens, the markets are just going to bounce around like a pingpong ball," he said.

Stocks also fell Thursday on news of another drop in home sales, weaker manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic states and a jump in inflation at the consumer level to its highest level since March. There also was bad news on the job market: an increase in the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits.

Thursday's numbers joined a series of reports pointing to a slowing economy. The government reported on July 29 that growth in the first half was much weaker than expected - and that the economy barely grew in the first quarter. Since then, the combination of disappointing numbers in the U.S. and worries about Europe's debt problems have set off waves of selling.

The Dow is down 13.6 percent since stocks began falling on July 21. That has drained billions from American's retirement savings and other investment accounts. And the stock market's drop can itself help move the country toward recession.